Chapter 89: Take Off. (Patreon)

DOCS: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mujzpmh0cDQZFxBJUA8P2QVH-snA0iCwk9MPpXcy2NQ/edit?usp=drive_link

Another chunker of a chapter here. Thank you for your continued support, and I hope you enjoy!

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"We're here," Granuel announced, and the rest of us looked at him weirdly.

"Yeah! The um, trees are very nice..??..??" Berry looked around the perfectly normal clearing that looked like every other clearing while trying to sound supportive.

"Not that!" Granuel complained, then took out a map. "This is the most isolated place you can find in the area. Furthest from any settlements."

We were still in Angelore territory, and we weren't about to spend months of travel to get away, so this was the best we could do. And it had worked well enough so far. I'd burned down so many trees last time, yet I hadn't heard a word of complaint.

Well, aside from Elfrafim. And her points were totally valid. I should rein it in.

"Okay," Therick looked at the sky. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun would start to set soon. "Let's set up camp here for tonight."

He began listing out roles, and I helped set up the food with Moonwash. I’d try and take on hunting usually, but we’d already killed so many during the day. We might even have to ditch some of the materials later, as we could only carry so much, and there wasn't any convenient secret base nearby.

I still missed the place. I hated that we were driven away. But it was time regardless, for me to finally come back here and be with my friends.

We began to settle in for the night, and I found myself setting up my sleeping bag right next to Moonwash. I hugged her to sleep, in between my hard armor, and some blankets for padding.

~~~

"Wake up! Vladmonkes incoming!" Therick's voice immediately woke me up from my slumber. I snapped to my hooves, and began looking around, alert. My need for sleep had been steadily decreasing as I leveled, and what remained was easier to shake off whenever I snapped back to consciousness.

Near me, Granuel got up a little bit more sluggishly, meanwhile Moonwash already had her usual serious expression on her face after I’d carried her up along with me. Everyone else was already awake. Berry was standing where the enemies were inbound, and Angerly had just fetched her mace.

"About a dozen of them--" Therick began to say, but Granuel cut him off.

"No. Dozens. And they're headed this way."

"Fuck!"

"We should run," Berry said in that dreadful voice of someone desperately trying to remain calm in the face of death. "I'll take the rear. Now go! Escape!"

Her six feet remained planted on the ground as she told us to run, and her eyes trailed along the darkness between trees. 

"What--"

"Berry, no!"

"We're not leaving you behind!"

The white-furred monkeys began to step out of the cover of the night before the argument could really happen. I took that moment to step forward and draw my greatsword. Good thing I was already in my armor.

"That's right," I said. "We're staying here to fight, and we'll slaughter them all."

"What... Haell, I know you're strong, but this is too much," Berry protested. "A whole horde of them. And these monsters are way strong for their level. They for sure have level 20s, maybe even a level 40! Even you would be... no..."

...match. 

The word died in her throat as I unfolded my wings and took flight. I looked at all these lesser mongrels who'd dared to interrupt my sleep and threathen my friends. They had made the wrong choice, they had made the wrong enemy, and today I shall teach them of their folly! Not one would be left, not one after I was done!!

My aura exploded out of me, and Berry stared, mouth agape. Everyone else felt reassured and had been shaken out of their stupor, now taking proper stances and formation.

"Do not be distracted," I said through gritted teeth and a forced smirk that no one could see. I stared back at Berry, and pointed at the enemy. "Fight."

I was already moving by the time the words came out of my mouth. The contacts were torn out of my eyes; and the stuffy, inefficient, fucking annoying oversized boots were removed to reveal my hooves. The vladmonkes (usually pronounced as vlad-monk) were predominantly level 10, with some level 20s, and one that might have reached 40. I dove away from the strongest enemy and aimed for a cluster of the weaker ones. They whooped, they yowled, their cries only grated on my ears and fueled my wrath. One of them tried to jump onto my path, and I demonstrated using the wretched monster’s body exactly why I had chosen to descend amongst their midst. My greatsword ripped through its body like tissue paper, facing little resistance as the level 20 vladmonke’s defenses were not up to the task. It didn't matter how the damned animal could become tougher as the fight progressed, if I just finished them off in one hit. 

A bloodbath ensued as my infernal flames blazed to life and plunged this side of the battlefield into chaos. All the vladmonkes around me fell, their critical organs torn asunder by my blade, and their fur burned by the blaze that sought to end all life. They couldn’t even coat it properly with their own blood, as the heat evaporated some of the red liquid before it could be properly absorbed. Even a level 20 died so quickly and pathetically to me as I sidestepped its lunge, then sliced deeply at its throat. 

More vladmonkes came, descending from the trees and running across the ground. They paused at the brink of fire, at the precipice, and I snarled at the cowardice. My hand snapped out and pulled one into the flames, and the creature’s shriek echoed into its compatriots' ears as I gutted it with my blade.

I grinned, but it was not a happy expression. My wrath magic came crashing down on them in the next moment as whole canonballs of the stuff were shot out. The already agitated vladmonkes did not rot or twist apart, but instead their fear was overwhelmed by their wrath against me who had killed their friend. The monsters jumped into the fire, like cattle willingly jumping into the meat-grinder.

“That’s right! Come! COME!” I shouted into the crowd, and spread the flames out even further. In that chaotic burning landscape I thrived, never allowing the enemy to coordinate as I sporadically appeared from within the flames. 

The wildfire had become a maze. It flickered and waned in power, as if almost alive. Some vladmonkes began to drop dead just from the fire, without ever being graced by the touch of my blade. Some had began to flee, but my wrath-filled eyes delayed them long enough to be finished off, usually by a following bullet of magic.

My enemies ran around like blind chickens, helpless and disoriented. My gaze flashed with a burning glint upon seeing their folly, and the apes felt a burning sensation greater than before, thinking they’d been gravely damaged. That distraction proved fatal for them if my greatsword chose their heads as its next target, or it could prove fatal for their allies as they lost the ability to help. Regardless of the method, the outcome remained the same, and it was that they were dying.

My display was so flashy that it had captivated the entire area by now. Other nearby animals fled, meanwhile Berry shouted if I was okay and had nearly jumped into the wildfire I’d created. Therick held her back and explained briefly why I was just fine, but I was still angered by the suggestion that I could not handle these monsters. I knew that was an irrational thought, so I did not kill Berry for it, but I did vent my anger as wrath magic flooded my body and I crushed the skull of an enemy. 

A sudden hit landed on my back, causing me to stagger. It hurt, and it might’ve even damaged the mythril armor that Moonwash had made for me. My expression turned ugly, and my glare even more intense. I turned around and allowed the aura to explode out of my body as I stared down the vladmonke that had done this. I struck the damned creature in my rage, and the slash drew fountains of blood from its arms, increasing its defenses further in turn. The fur of a vladmonke was made to drink upon its own fresh blood, if not its kin, while the blood of other creature’s would work but not to the same extent.

All it ultimately accomplished was to delay the inevitable, and I reveled in every second of it as my mind screamed for the enemy to just, “Die, die, DIE!”

I had screamed that aloud it seemed, as my friends’ gazes snapped to me for a second. They had taken advantage of the distraction that I’d provided, and were systematically doing a sweep of the vladmonkes that remained. Granuel’s breath hitched and he shouted for me.

“HAELL!”

I looked towards where he was pointing, and found a level 40 variant of the vladmonkes that was approaching my friends rapidly. I growled as I flooded myself with wrath magic, forcing my body to make it in time. I managed to intersect the monster with a massive slash to its back before it could reach my party.

The vladmonke squealed and nearly fell over, but it managed to regain its balance and face me at the last second. The creature’s ugly face snarled at me, and I growled back. 

What followed was a rapid clash that whipped the wind around us as fist met against blade. At first my greatsword drew deep furrows into the animal’s flesh, even managing to crack a few bones, but then my enemy’s fur began to harden as it drank upon its own blood. I followed up on my offense by summoning waves of infernal flames around the both of us, but while it did work, it clearly wasn’t as effective against something so high-level.

And then a mace cracked across its head, staggering the creature. My blood boiled and hissed at sight, and my follow-up slash sunk deeply into its skull. The monster somehow survived despite the mangled state of its face, but then a stupidly hot fireball crashed against its back, and sharp pointed stones pierced its sides, if not very deeply. I forced my arm that I had just broken to move again, and then I used it to bash my greatsword across the enemy's head over and over before it could recover. I was not shy about activating the mini-ritual as many times as I had to, and I had to drop my weapon by the end as my arms hung limply on my sides, unresponsive. But the deed was done, and with my team, I had killed a level 40 monster.

During this time, Berry and Therick had gone around us, and were holding back the horde of other vladmonkes. Granuel too had focused most of his attention on this battle as most of his projectiles had been aimed at the approaching horde, staggering their advance by knocking them over or outright crippling them. The crustecar woman ran around as he did so, getting the attention of the enemies, and then running the fuck away towards even more vladmonkes. They began to cluster together, and Therick helped to keep them there while Granuel aimed for those who tried to approach from a different direction. Berry jumped in to protect Therick from a level 20 vladmonke, taking its punch on her right side, and then punching back with her left shields. That was a mere inconvenience for her enemy, but the following crunch of her big claw on the creature’s thighs was certainly more than that. She and Therick left that enemy to crawl, and they continued to herd the mass of them away from us to buy time.

And now the time they had been waiting for had come. 

My arms were still unusable, but my horns were whole and hale. With the monsters herded so close together, I summoned giant balls of infernal might and wrathful fury. Each hit spread across multiple, and the flames in particular jumped across so many of them. 

I continued my bombardment as Berry and Therick began to retreat, not immune to the flames. They positioned themselves just in front of Moonwash and the rest while I ran off to the side, unwilling to use my wings as I knew they could run better than I could fly. Wrath flooded the minds of our enemies with my next projectiles, and they chased after me like the easily manipulated masses. I led them around in circles for a while, before I sped up to my limit and left them all behind right where they needed to be. 

Right in front of a massive slab of stone glowed in the immaterial power of a ritual. 

It didn’t stay immaterial for long as a blazing fireball burst into reality and surged towards what remained of those that had dared to defy us.

“Fireball Slaughter.”

Searing heat collided against flesh. Primal screams resounded as the primates uselessly tried to free themselves of the burning agony. Some of them were already on fire earlier from my own efforts, but my own infernal flames were quickly consumed as fuel for this greater ritual of fire.

It was beautiful. It was insulting. My power was so easily overwhelmed. But I did not let those negative thoughts cloud the beauty of this moment. I even made extra sure that this scenery in front of me right now was saved in my memory core.

~~~

My legs buckled, and I knelt on the forest ground. I smelled the strong scent of the burning night air as I sunk deeply into my mind. I calmly worked through the turbulent tide of thoughts and emotions, slowly regaining my stable center.

“Haell! Oh Leviathan, are you okay!?” My friends immediately came rushing towards me after confirming that we had won, and I smiled weakly upon their approach. It was Berry that spoke in a frantic and uncontrolled manner, and then she froze upon meeting my eyes, as if it only now hit her what I had revealed. “I… what? What are those eyes… and those wings earlier… but no. What about your injuries? Can they be healed!?”

She had a million and one questions and I had all the answers, but I was too agitated right now to go into detail for any one of them.

“I’m fine. It’ll heal. Trust me,” I settled for that response, then I turned towards my girlfriend. “Moonwash. Can you remove all this? The things in my face?”

“Okay.”

She fetched her backpack, and then crouched beside me. She began to remove the clay that clung to my horns and helmet.

“Umm. What is going on? This doesn’t seem important right–” Berry began to say, but Therick placed a hand on her shoulder…esque area and shook his head, signaling for her to just watch and see.

And watch and see she did.

Moonwash took off my helmet, revealing that the horns were not mere implements but part of my skull. Some of my makeup had already run off with all the excitement of the fight, but most of it remained as my girlfriend’s creation was really strong. She wiped away everything that was left on my face. 

I turned my gaze back to Berry, and she nearly flinched but held herself firm.

“This is it. This is me. It’s the secret I’ve been hiding. I am a demon.”

Her mouth opened, her mandibles clacked, and she repeated that motion a couple of times until she was finally able to get a word out. 

“Oh.” 

That was all she could say in the moment, and I did not press for more. I felt the warm healing energies of light and nature suffuse me a moment later, and I settled into its embrace as the magic mixed with the healing of my regen heart, making for a very soothing experience. Everyone should feel this at least once. I’d volunteer to do the part where their bones break.

~~~

“Hey… Haell.” Berry called my name as she approached the small meadow. She had phrased the word almost like a question.

“Yep. That’s me. No fake name here.” I sat back on the grass and enjoyed the view of the stars. There was other life there, I knew. I wanted to see those worlds someday

“Oh! Right, of course.” She fidgeted nervously and then sat beside me. My face was fully exposed now, and so was my red skin. All I wore was a plain tunic and a staid skirt. “So that’s why you never take off your armor?” 

I smirked at her ‘smooth’ attempt at humor.

Berry had already seen what I looked like earlier, of course, but I was sure getting a better view like this, and with my body clean of blood and grime, gave a different impression. It removed all other interpretations that she might have had to explain away what I was. It wasn’t just a trick of the light, she didn’t misremember, and neither was it a mere Mutation or two that had been changed. I was a demon, and nothing else.

“Among other things,” I replied. “But I do like my armor, and I love wearing it. In part because being cautious and safe is good, and also because Moonwash gave it to me. It’s an important gift. I’ll wear it happily all the time if I wasn’t forced to do it.”

“Oh yeah,” she relaxed a little after my answer, and I too started to breathe easier, be less tense. “I have a carapace, so I wouldn’t know. But losing my defenses would be nerve wracking!”

“Right!? You get it,” I nodded, and Berry mirrored the gesture. It was fun to see her basically bob her entire body to do it.

I had to admit that I was just as nervous about this as she was earlier, but I was even more excited to finally share with a new person, a new friend, what I really was.

“So what will you do then?” I asked after a lull in the conversation.

“What do you mean?” Hey eyestalks stared at me. I imagined they would be blinking right now if she could do that. “My carapace is just fine. I won’t… do anything to it? Well, maybe I should find a good river to clean it on.”

“No! Not that, silly!” I giggled. “What I meant to ask was: Are you still as enthusiastic about partying up with me? Do we ignore each other and hunt on different days? Would you share my secrets and have me driven out of my home?”

“What? No!”

“No… you don’t want to party up with me anymore?”

“Not that!” Her six feet danced in agitation. “I do want to party with you! What you did earlier was awesome! I was saying no to sharing your secrets and driving you from your home. My mandibles are pierced tight into my mouth!”

I laughed. I loved the analogy that she used. I looked down at my friends who were far away and guarding the perimeter. They had given the two of us the time to talk things out in private.

Berry kept glancing at me, clearly burning with a million more questions, but unsure whether or not to ask them. I shrugged and decided to tell her about myself of my own volition. She had spoken extensively about her own life and insecurities, meanwhile the details I’d given were sparse and impersonal. I didn’t owe it to her to open up, but I wanted to, and I wished I could’ve done it from the start without any worries. I did love talking about myself and hearing my own voice.

"I am not of this world." I began, already feeling amused at how confused I was about to make my friend. "I am a reincarnator. I have my past like's memories. I was born as a human to my loving parents, and then I became like this, a demon, of my own free will and efforts. Any questions?”

“Huh?” she said after a few seconds passed. “What? WHAT???!?!?!??”

I laughed upon finally getting her reaction before I went on to explain in full detail what and who exactly I was. 

~~~

“Wow,” Berry said. “That’s a lot.”

I had explained to her my past life, the kind of family that I’d had, some of my struggles, finally accomplishing my dreams, and then my eventual untimely death right after. I continued the story that I had once told her when we’d first met, and clarified the parts that I’d left out. I took a dangerous risk to achieve my dreams which led to me becoming an Imp, and my lifestyle had only gotten more brutal since. I’d even taken another massive risk recently, which evolved my species to a fully-fledged demon, and the troubles with that metamorphosis was why I made her wait for seven months before getting a proper meeting with me.

“Yeah. It’s all I ever wanted. And I managed to seize it.” I squeezed my hand towards the rising sun.

“I understand now, Haell. Why you’re so wary of revealing yourself to other people. Other than the work of the angels themselves, there’s no precedent for becoming an entirely new species. I don’t know how they’ll react… but they haven’t been kind to new people so far…”

“And I doubt that’d change. No matter how awesome I obviously am.”

“...I wish I had that confidence! But you’re probably right. I don’t know what it was like in your old world, but to give up being a human here. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a demon! But you know... Humans just get so much…”

The insinuation that I lost anything for following my dreams caused me to gnash my teeth in anger, but I quickly stopped myself from doing that. Berry didn’t mean to condemn my choices, she didn’t say anything that was untrue.

“You’re not wrong about there being a tradeoff, but I regret nothing about making that trade. I am only happy that I can now be the demon I always wanted to be.” I summoned wrath and infernal magic into my palm. I allowed them to swirl around each other, and then manifest at the same time. They reacted chaotically to each other’s presence, and there was some mutual annihilation, but eventually the infernal magic would win because neither of them was built to destroy each other, but fire proved more versatile in that way. “Besides. What status the humans do get is fleeting. Fragile. Demons get so much more. Especially me.”

Berry was silent after that, no doubt mulling over the wisdom that I dropped. I chose to ask the all-important question again. “So, I ask. What will you do? Do you still wish to hunt and adventure with me, or have I scared you off?”

“I want to! Absolutely!” She had seemed meek and confused this entire discussion, so the suddenness and speed of her response to that particularly difficult decision surprised me. “S-sorry. I got carried away there…”

“No need for that,” I stood up and smiled. “We’re friends now, right? No need to be so reserved.”

“R-really? We’re friends!?” She looked up at me hopefully.

“Yes. I wouldn’t have told you all those things otherwise. Unless if you don’t like it…?” I prompted. 

“I like it! I absolutely like it!” She tackled me into a hug, and I crouched down awkwardly to return the gesture. That would take some practice to get right. “I’ll do well, I promise!”